The Russian Foreign Ministry considers unacceptable the statements of the new Minister of Information of Kazakhstan, Askar Umarov, about Russia and the Russian diaspora in Kazakhstan, said the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova. At the same time, she stressed that the appointment of members of the government is a sovereign affair of Kazakhstan and, in general, the leadership of the republic follows the course of deepening friendly relations with Russia.
“The statements that we saw were quoted in the media and are certainly unacceptable. Any nationalist, xenophobic statements that incite a feeling of hatred or hostility between peoples, nationalities, nationalities are unacceptable, because this is our principled position,” Ms. Zakharova said at a briefing (quoted by TASS). She noted that, perhaps, some statements were attributed to the minister, but she “did not see any refutation.” According to her, now the leadership of the republic “firmly follows the course of a comprehensive deepening of friendly relations” with Russia.
Earlier, the head of Rossotrudnichestvo, Yevgeny Primakov, accused Mr. Umarov of Nazi and chauvinistic views on Russia and Russians and called him “Russophobic rubbish.” In his Telegram channel, he published several quotes from the new minister about Russians in Kazakhstan. One of them sounded like this: “Do not forget that you are an imposed diaspora here, and not autochthons, and say thank you that your rights are respected and no one is persecuting you, as colonizers in other countries.” Another dealt with the Victory Day, in which the minister called the Great Patriotic War “foreign” for the people of Kazakhstan.
In response to the accusation, the minister said that he is not who they are trying to portray him, and in all previous positions he tried to conduct fruitful work with Russian and other partners. “We did good joint projects, including for common dates, such as Victory Day, etc.,” he wrote on Facebook.
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